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August 9, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
As early as one day after the March 11 tsunami sparked the (still ongoing) nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan’s government had advanced radiation fallout and atmospheric modeling showing the area most likely to be hit by fallout from the explosions and the ongoing seepage. The government allegedly concealed this information, to prevent [...]
August 8, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
With the objectivity and commitment to fact of S&P now seriously in question, and allegations now revived that it and other rating agencies were paid to give AAA ratings to junk securities derivatives, it is clear that we need a 100% not-for-profit (NFP) cooperative bond rating agency. The independent NFP agency could be one of several, staffed by top economists, stakeholders and public servants, and standing somewhere between the public and the private sectors.
August 3, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
Allegations that the so-called Tea Party caucus has degenerated into little more than a lobby for the wealthy interests that back them gain credibility when they support tax hikes on the vulnerable, and which will have a direct negative impact on the middle class. It should be well understood by all: the House Tea Party Republicans have pushed for and supported—the anti-student provisions in the failed Republican-only House bills were far worse—tax hikes that will make college more expensive and eat way at middle class wealth.
July 24, 2011 :: staff :: One Comment
In a bizarre interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, House Speaker John Boehner appeared embattled, distracted and without a firm grip on any solution to the debt ceiling crisis. He seemed to be unable to speak about the debt ceiling crisis in any truthful manner, repeatedly attacking Pres. Obama for not being willing to make a deal, despite Obama offering far more than any president, Democratic or Republican, in debt and deficit reduction, in fact offering far more than Boehner himself was seeking.
July 23, 2011 :: The Editors :: 16 Comments
Ron Paul gave Fox News’ Neil Cavuto the latest in a series of Republican presidential campaign advertisements, posing as interview, today as the nation waited to see Congressional leaders gather with Pres. Obama in the White House Cabinet Room. While Cavuto labored to spin the issue toward a Tea Party interpretation of reality, Mr. Paul made the astonishing claim that the least damaging outcome of the debt ceiling negotiations would be a national default.
July 22, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
Today, the Speaker of the House of representatives abandoned debt ceiling negotiations, while putting the entire House on recess for the weekend. He did not return White House phone calls until after 5 pm, only to explain that he was now rejecting any plan of any kind that would raise taxes by any amount. After moving toward a credible compromise that would involve serious debt and deficit reduction, Boehner suddenly returned to the radical “starve the beast” anti-tax policy of Grover Norquist.
July 21, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
When comedians are keeping watch over the deliberate falsehoods dispensed by “mainstream media”, there is something rotten in the culture of our free press. Not because comedians shouldn’t do that work—all citizens should—but because the mainstream media should be committed, at every level, to truth-telling and citizenship. Fox News, in light of the bribery, spying and coercion, scandal engulfing its parent company, has definitively shown how far from that mission its news operation is.
July 19, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Gordon Brown, the former UK prime minister and chancellor of the Exchequer denounces “the systematic criminality of News International”, accusing the media conglomerate of “lawbreaking on an industrial scale” and of abusing the rights of citizens, crime victims and the families of soldiers who lost their lives in war, for financial gain by the most [...]
July 19, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Rupert Murdoch has, today, told a Parliamentary committee in London that he was “clearly” misled by unknown persons within News Corp. Several of the committee members have sought to clarify who may have been responsible for misleading him. His son James told the committee that “What happened at News of the World was wrong”, adding that [...]
July 18, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
In a shocking development, a former News of the World reporter and key whistleblower in the phone-hacking scandal now sweeping the News Corp. media empire and British political landscape has been found dead at his home in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. Sean Hoare was the first named journalist to have alleged that Andy Coulson, former News of the World editor and top media officer for Prime Minister David Cameron, knew of and openly encouraged illegal phone hacking and other corrupt practices.
July 18, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Rupert Murdoch, his son James, and his recently arrested protégée, Rebekah Brooks, are scheduled to testify before Parliament, tomorrow. With more than ten people now arrested on allegations of corruption and illegal hacking into private files, the scandal that closed the 168-year-old News of the World tabloid is now threatening to metastasize to the rest of the News Corp. news media properties, and to high-ranking public officials. For the second time in as many days, a top-ranking police official has stepped down, due to alleged connections to the News Corp. scandal.
July 17, 2011 :: The Editors :: One Comment
The Wall Street Journal is an historic and storied publication, known for top-quality journalism and meticulous reporting of facts relevant to financial markets and economic activity more broadly. It is a mainstay of American print media, and has long been known for honoring the bright line that must be drawn between editorial viewpoints and news reporting. Since 2007, however, it is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., and not all of that legacy remains certain to everyone.
July 17, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The downward spiral of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has deepened, as Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World tabloid, accused of bribery and illegal hacking of private phone messages and other documents, has now been arrested. Now, the multinational News Corp., which owns not only the now closed News of the World, [...]
July 15, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
News Corp., the New York-based multinational media conglomerate whose majority shareholder is the controversial billionaire Rupert Murdoch, is now facing an FBI investigation for illegal activity in news gathering. Long maligned by press advocacy groups as a leading source of abusive media activity, and even of attacks on genuine news sources, News Corp. is now being accused of having authorized bribery and/or hacking activity to gain illegal access to the private files of victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
July 11, 2011 :: staff :: One Comment
Newspapers in the UK and TV networks around the world are reporting that UK prime minister Gordon Brown says his bank accounts, property records, his children’s medical accounts and other private accounts, were illegally accessed by the Sun tabloid and/or the Sunday Times, another of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers in Great Britain. The allegation appears to implicate one or more journalists in gaining private, privileged information relating to the personal health of at least one of Brown’s children, along with other private information.
March 17, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
National Public Radio is a resource that belongs to the American people. It is not government controlled, has no editorial bias in terms of ideology or party, and is the nation’s most extensive network of committed professional journalists delivering reliable information to American citizens, via the radio. Federal funding is a commitment to enabling the American people to benefit from the founding principle that a free and independent press makes us freer and more resilient to the challenges a democracy faces.
March 16, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
A report from the American Medical Association finds the US is not prepared to deal with the public health crisis that would ensue from a major nuclear accident. There is also evidence suggesting that aging nuclear plants are less stable and less secure than the public is led to believe. Indeed, radiation releases are surprisingly and disturbingly common.
March 15, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
Nuclear power plants, like the one at Fukushima Daiichi, contain 1,000 times more radioactivity to leak than the Hiroshima bomb. Nuclear scientists estimate 1,000,000 people would be killed or injured in a major accident, were one to occur at the San Onofre plant in southern California. But Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) on Monday compared the [...]
March 3, 2011 :: Denver Lessing :: No Comment Yet
FOX News has begun to escalate what appears to be a partisan campaign against the people of the state of Wisconsin. The network was caught yesterday using fake footage, stock footage of another protest, in Florida, at another time, where there were physical scuffles going on, while reporting that this was taking place in Wisconsin. [...]
February 25, 2011 :: staff :: One Comment
FOX News’ Shepard Smith has shocked the radical right-wing by telling the truth about Wisconsin. He explained on air that the motivation for Wisconsin’s governor was clearly not economic or budgetary. He explained that there is in fact no fiscal crisis in Wisconsin. The projected budget deficit is far smaller than what the governor claims. [...]
February 20, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
What is democracy? That is the first question that is always asked by pro-regime elements, whether in 18th-century Britain or France or 21st-century Egypt or Bahrain, because their aim is to muddy the waters and oppose the spread of democratic freedom. Free and open access to factual information is the cornerstone right of all citizens of a free society. Journalists are the “Fourth Estate” —in the words attributed to Edmund Burke, by Thomas Carlyle—, the watchdogs of the people’s access to truth.
February 15, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Public broadcasting in the United States is not like state-run television in other countries, where the ruling party often influences the editorial stance and the quality of reporting. In the United States, there is an absolute wall of separation between politicians for elective office and the editorial process that shapes what is produced by public broadcasting.
February 12, 2011 :: Eva Scherson :: No Comment Yet
On a day of joy for the people of Egypt, Republican presidential hopeful, Gov. Tim Pawlenty shamed himself and his nation by criticizing Pres. Barack Obama for siding with Egypt’s pro-democracy movement, and suggested that from his point of view, the dictator Mubarak is “our friend”. He also said “with bullies, might makes right”, and suggested US foreign policy should degenerate into the adolescent dysfunction of the bullies.
February 8, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Keith Olbermann, who shocked the media world last month when he stepped down from his post at MSNBC, where he was the network’s most visible and successful primetime host, will be joining Current TV, where he will host a 1-hour nightly primetime show and serve as the network’s chief news officer.
February 7, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
It has recently become fashionable to say the US is not expressing a consistent policy on Egypt, that the policy has been changing every day or is noncommittal. This is patently untrue and distorts the very consistent message of support for the pro-democracy movement coming from the White House. Pres. Obama and his administration have consistently supported the just cause of the demonstrators, while urging the Egyptian government to take substantive reforms without delay.
January 23, 2011 :: Eva Scherson :: Comments Off
Glenn Beck has once more taken extremist hate-speech to a new extreme, calling for the murder of liberals and progressives, whom he alleges are revolutionaries who are plotting an armed struggle to overthrow the United States government. It is the most unfounded and absurd of his conspiracy theories to date, and is clearly aimed at inciting a violent emotional reaction from people who are susceptible to the language of combat and armed intervention in the political realm.
January 22, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Liberal cable news powerhouse Keith Olbermann, one of the staunchest and most successful critics of the Republican party’s politics, has abruptly resigned from his show Countdown, on MSNBC. Olbermann’s success had driven MSNBC, which had dismissed then top-rated host Phil Donohue for criticizing the Iraq war effort, to re-orient its editorial stance toward the more progressive end of the political spectrum.
December 7, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The media storm surrounding the personal story of Julian Assange, reputed founder of WikiLeaks, is in many ways a sad commentary on the state of our security policy. The malice directed at Assange, and the coincidental pursuit of him on accusation of sexual assault in Sweden, appear to fit into a campaign designed to dissuade the general public from taking seriously anything produced by WikiLeaks. The fact is: there would be no use for WikiLeaks and no controversy whatsoever, if democratic governments did not rely so heavily on secrecy.
December 5, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
There are reports online that suggest the US Dept. of State may be seeking to suppress the use of data and information emerging from WikiLeaks document releases, telling possible recruits that all such information remains “classified”, i.e. secret, and that any use of such data, including reposting of links to the leaks themselves or to WikiLeaks generally, will disqualify them from serving at the Dept. of State. Critics say this is an attempt to avoid facing reality and an undemocratic demand against the the right to free and open debate.
November 8, 2010 :: Riga Listin :: Comments Off
MSNBC anchor and news analyst Keith Olbermann will be back on the air on Tuesday evening, after being indefinitely suspended, and thus missing his Friday and Monday programming. MSNBC president Phil Griffin had suspended Olbermann, alleging that three campaign donations violated the ethics rules for journalists employed by NBC News. The suspension had appeared to many to be politically motivated, given Comcast’s plans to take over the network, and the likely incoming president’s staunchly pro-Bush views and past fundraising activity.
November 1, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The federal government of the United States is experiencing major annual budget deficits. Republicans have spent most of the last two years decrying “tax and spend liberals” for causing such deficits. But every penny of the current federal budget deficit is directly attributable to specific policies enacted under George W. Bush. And Republicans are promising to return to and expand the very same policies put in place by Bush.
October 31, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Advertisement targets the following groups for spending millions in secret, undisclosed donations to fund campaign attack ads: Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Job Security, American Future Fund, American Crossroads GPS, American Action Network. The web ad was temporarily pulled from the Think Progress website, while lawyers reviewed its content. The ad has since been reposted.
October 31, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Amid allegations the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is using membership dues and donations from foreign firms to wage an all-out ad-war against Democratic politics, at least 275 members are demanding the group cease its “punitive campaign” against anyone who supported the Affordable Care Act and reveal their sources and methods of funding the ads.
October 30, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Rally to Restore Sanity (and/or Fear), hosted by superstar comic news anchors Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert on the National Mall in Washington, DC, has drawn hundreds of thousands of people from across the country. Turnout was estimated at 300,000 beforehand, but images from the Mall show an edge-to-edge crowd filling the lawn from the stage at least as far back as the Washington Monument, meaning the total could well exceed 500,000 people.
October 25, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Daniel Ellsberg —who worked for the State Department, the Pentagon and the RAND Corporation and who leaked secret documents (the ‘Pentagon Papers’) spanning the history of the Vietnam war and bringing to light the truth about behind-the-scenes planning that went on at the highest levels of the government— speaks to DemocracyNow! about the WikiLeaks release of over 391,000 secret documents relating to the prosecution of the Iraq war from 2004 through 2009.
October 17, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Cable malice merchant Glenn Beck has been targeting specific groups for a campaign of libel, by which he appears to be attempting to rally conservative supporters through fear and intimidation. Numerous media groups have observed that Beck has been engaged in a consistent pattern of unfounded verbal abuse against specific progressive organizations working to create a more fair democratic society, and now at least one plot has been uncovered in which Beck was cited as the inspiration for a hate-motivated assassination.
October 13, 2010 :: Eva Scherson :: Comments Off
Karl Rove is a professional liar who has made it his priority to worship at the feet of billionaire corporate interests and those among the wealthy who prefer to avoid doing their part to repay the society that made them wealthy. His modus operandi is: formulate a series of falsehoods which will be repeated by as many individuals, media outlets and sources of propaganda as possible, and support that campaign with money from anyone with enough vested interest that the money will not stop flowing.
October 2, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Will viewers more actively select for the content of their media environment, as hyper-convergence moves forward and the news of the world at large is enmeshed in a spreading web of personal information? Will impartial news programming or even generalized mainstream media content disappear from the viewer’s localized media environment?
August 26, 2010 :: Eva Scherson :: Comments Off
The American right has been relentless in its assault on the character, talents and leadership qualities of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter since the Republican campaign against him in the 1980 presidential election cycle. Their attacks have rested on the assertion that his altruistic politics, his emphasis on responsible governance, and his wariness of handing public services to private profit-makers, were a general failure of leadership. In fact, their attacks on Carter are rooted in a rhetorical sympathy for the fundamentalist clerics who took power in Iran.
August 16, 2010 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
Republican House minority leader John Boehner, of Ohio, said last Sunday on Meet the Press that, whether or not tax cuts are paid for, Pres. Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans must not be allowed to expire. He refused, in increasingly heated and defensive language, to say whether or not tax cuts are paid for. His refusal was as good as an admission that there is no way to pay for the tax cuts and that his party does not, in fact, believe the trickle-down theory behind the Bush tax cuts will actually work.
August 8, 2010 :: Eva Scherson :: Comments Off
John Boehner says the United States should not have any qualities or any conditions of life that might serve as “an incentive for illegal immigrants to come here”. He was commenting specifically on the question of whether the Constitution should grant citizenship to anyone born in the United States, but his reaction suggests that anything of any kind which might be considered a point of attraction for anyone from another country should not be tolerated.
July 24, 2010 :: Eva Scherson :: Comments Off
Fox News has adopted an all-campaign, all-the-time approach, in which it hires Republican politicians to pose as “reporters” and “anchors” and pushes mystical assumptions about market philosophy that have nothing to do with markets and everything to do with making it easy for those on top to stay there. Fox is steeped in a battle with its own intellectual values, fighting to portray itself as populist, while pushing the most elite-inducing economic philosophies and arguing consistently against actions that would defend ordinary people against unaccountable power.
July 23, 2010 :: Riga Listin :: 4 Comments
Andrew Breitbart —a fake journalist whose overt political bias is not only self-declared, but is seething with bile and contempt— is defending his use of rigged reporting and character assassination in a deliberate attempt to distort the truth and sow racist hate. Breitbart posted a clip of a video on his blog, in which USDA official Shirley Sherrod, explained how she came to see beyond race and transcend the temptation to judge people’s character or motives based on the color of their skin.
July 21, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The story of Shirley Sherrod illustrates how injustice and prejudice will flood the scene whenever we give in to a pathological aversion to nuance. Our media culture, our politics, the headline-obsessed pseudo-reporting that passes for “mainstream journalism”, allow loud-mouthed bigots and propagandists like Andrew Breitbart to pervert our free press and ruin lives. Fortunately, the media picked up the mistake, and the White House responded to Sherrod’s resigning with a call for a thorough investigation of the facts surrounding the incident.
June 28, 2010 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
A group of Republican senators today suddenly took a shift to the extremist right when they launched one after another attack on the legendary Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, widely considered to be one of the wisest and most responsible justices ever to sit on the Supreme Court. They attacked him as a quintessential “activist judge”, mainly to paint Elena Kagan, who clerked for him, as somehow opposed to “American values”.
June 13, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Small-government conservatives across the country are up in arms demanding an overwhelming show of government power in the Gulf of Mexico. They demand that the president of the United States establish “command and control” over the activities of private industry and “get this clean up now”. They are shouting from the rooftops and massing in the streets, or so they would like us to believe, at the outrage that government is not able to establish absolute control of the worst ecological disaster in US history.
June 12, 2010 :: Riga Listin :: Comments Off
There is no clearer way to say it than that virtually no one in South Carolina Democratic party politics had ever heard of Alvin Greene until his name showed up on the primary ballot as a candidate for the United States Senate. So how did someone with no party ties, no political background, no money, no campaign operation and with there being virtually no evidence of any campaign effort whatsoever, win the Democratic party nomination to challenge Republican incumbent Jim DeMint?
June 5, 2010 :: Carmen Visna :: 3 Comments
The environmental catastrophe resulting from BP’s blown-out deepwater oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is the worst seen in the US, but Ecuador’s ongoing battle with pervasive, persistent toxic contamination relating to Texaco’s operations in the remote Amazon is the worst oil-related environmental disaster the world has ever seen. In a once-pristine corner of the Ecuadoran Amazon rainforest, Texaco dumped billions of gallons of petroleum waste byproduct, contaminating groundwater and ruining the local environment irreparably.
June 5, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
On 4 June 1989, the Chinese military moved into Tiananmen Square to disperse a long-running student and citizen protest in favor of democratic reforms. The military were reportedly ordered to use deadly force and opened fire, killing an unknown number of unarmed civilians. The anonymous man in the above photo became known around the world as an icon of human rights, when he stopped a column of tanks by standing in their way, a moral and human challenge to the military crackdown.
June 2, 2010 :: Eva Scherson :: One Comment
The humanitarian aid vessel known as the Rachel Corrie —named for the American activist killed when she refused to move from an attempt to block the Israeli military (IDF) from a bulldozing operation— is now en route to Gaza, and will likely face the Israeli military blockade, which seeks to maintain an absolute embargo on any cargo and any persons entering Gaza except by way of the IDF. Israel has said it will not “seek confrontation”, but it will “defend Israeli citizens threatened by this terror from the sea”.
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